Broadway World
by Galieo Figaro
Summary: Princeton and Kate are celebrating the anniversary of the musical's induction into Broadway World, a community of all Broadway shows plays and musicals that is connected by portals. When Kate - who is 9 month pregnant - accidentally falls into the portal that lands her in the world of Peter and the Starcatcher, Princeton must face new dangers and take risks to save her. No flames.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I owe all my readers an apology for not really putting these intros in my other stories. I'm a bit new when it comes to writing fanfiction so I seriously hope this makes up for it. Anyway, this is a parody of Finding Nemo (which doesn't belong to me) and Avenue Q, Assassins, Little Shop of Horrors, Shrek the Musical, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Peter and the Starcatcher also don't belong to me. So without further ado, enjoy!

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"Wow." Princeton glanced at the soft yellow light coming from the end of the street. The light that led out of the world of Avenue Q and into millions of others.

"Hmm." Kate Monster, his girlfriend, nodded, smiling contentedly.

"Wow." He repeated.

"Mhmm." She nodded again.

"Wow." Princeton said a third time.

"Yes, Princeton." Kate said something for the first time in a while. "Yes-no I see it. It's beautiful."

"So Kate," Princeton grinned proudly, putting his arm around her furry waist, "when I said I would put everything I learned into a show, you didn't think I would actually do it, did you? Huh?"

He playfully spun her around a couple times before hugging her close to him, taking a deep breath. "Did your man deliver or did he deliver?"

"Oh, my man delivered." Kate smiled, ruffling his smooth, black hair.

"And it wasn't so easy." he pointed out

"Because we had a lot of stiff competition back in 2004, didn't we?" she answered, happily rolling her eyes because she knew that was exactly what he was going to say next.

"You better believe we did, and 'Avenue Q' beat them to the punch." he said proudly.

"Mhm, you did good." Kate said as she laid a kiss on Princeton's cheek and led him back into their apartment. "And after 8 years, the neighbors are still awesome."

Princeton started laughing a little, but as he looked at Kate, he saw she looked a little distant, a little sad.

"But you still are happy here, aren't you?" he asked, concerned.

"No, no, no, Princeton, I really am happy." she reassured him.

"But honey, I know that being a part of the Broadway World is a big responsibility, with the Tony's and the Obie's and all, but could you remind me again why we need to have the portal?"

"Kate, honey, whenever we want to have a kid, word will spread and it's all everyone will be talking about." Princeton laughed, starting to get carried away in his thoughts.

"Look, look, look." he motioned as he ran outside.

"Our kid will wake, poke their little head out the window and they'll see the Fiddler on the Roof! He'll be playing a song just for them."

Kate couldn't help but laugh at the thought of a character from one of her favorite shows coming through the portal to entertain her family.

Then she became uneasy. "Princeton, just a question out of the blue. Whenever you do want to have a baby, what do you want to name him or her?"

"Well, how about Princeton Jr. if it's a boy and Kate Jr. if it's a girl?" he suggested.

When Kate didn't say anything, he shrugged. "Okay, we're done."

"I like Molly." she said, but it wasn't to him. It sounded more like she was speaking to herself.

"Molly?" Princeton asked, a little confused.

"Well, we'll throw Molly in for consideration, but I'm just thinking it would be nice if we had a son or daughter named after us."

Kate suddenly looked excited and clasped her hands together. "Just think. If we put our minds to it, we could be parents!" she squealed with delight.

"Yeah." he smiled, putting his arm around Kate's shoulders.

Then his face fell. "But what if they won't like me?"

"Oh, Princeton." groaned a very annoyed Kate as she turned back into the apartment.

"No, really." he insisted.

"We have the possibility of having my monster genes kick in." she pointed out. Princeton understood exactly what this meant: their baby would probably be born a monster.

"Odds are this baby is going to adore you." she said, which made him feel more comfortable. He smiled and looked at Kate dreamily.

She took notice. "What?"

"You remember how we met?" he asked.

Kate suddenly looked like she was in pain. "Honestly, I try not to." she choked out as she started for the bathroom.

Unlike his girlfriend a few moments ago, Princeton didn't take notice of this sudden change of mood. "Well, I do. And it was all Christmas Eve's idea-" he playfully grabbed for her hand.

"Ack! Princeton!" she shrieked, pushing him away.

"and she was teaching you to be assertive-" he went on, not even hearing her.

"I'm gonna be sick! I gotta get to the bathroom!" she insisted as she made it in and dropped to the floor.

"And I got drunk with you!" he proclaimed, remembering their first night together. It was at that point he heard a loud groan.

"Ohhhhhhh."

Princeton peered in the door and saw her kneeling in front of the toilet, her shoulders hunched. "Kate, are you feeling all right?"

When Kate didn't answer, he knelt down next to her and put one hand over hers, which was clutching the side of the bowl.

"Do you need me to stroke your hair?" he asked gently.

She then started coughing until finally, she threw up.

Kate groaned again and lifted her head up to the medicine cabinet.

"I gotta... get..." she started to stand up.

"No Kate, no." Princeton insisted. "Just get back down. I'm right here. You'll be fine."

But Kate didn't seem to hear him as she tried to regain her balance.

She was almost standing up when - in a moment of weakness - her left foot went out from under her and she fell, banging her head on the toilet seat.

She slipped to the floor, unconscious.

Princeton was horrified. "Kate!" he cried, picking the monster up and taking her into their bedroom, laying her down.

He then quickly ran a washcloth under cold water and laid it on her forehead, trying to keep the swelling of a nasty bump she had acquired under control.

Princeton then pulled her shoes off, covered her up, took his own shoes off, and lay down next to Kate, his eyelids fluttering…

Hours later, Princeton woke up, looked over to where Kate had been laying, and found her spot empty. The rag was on the nightstand.

"KATE!" he yelled.

For the first time, he looked out the window and saw nothing but a light orange glow coming in. The street lights were on. Nighttime.

"Kate?" he called again, thinking maybe she was in the kitchen or the bathroom. No response.

"Kate?" he called another time, his voice cracking.

Princeton got up off the bed and wandered over to the window.

He saw a monster with short brown hair standing by herself at the curb, under a streetlight. It was Kate!

He went out to her.

"Kate?" he called softly.

She didn't turn her head, but she sniffled a little. _Has she been crying? _he thought to himself as he looked down at her feet and saw a small, white stick.

Princeton leaned down, picked it up, and saw it was a home pregnancy test. He gasped, but nothing could have prepared him for what came next.

He moved under the light a little more and read the results ... +.

"Kate?"

She couldn't keep it in any longer. She turned to Princeton and broke down. Dropping the test, he took Kate in his arms and let her bury her sobbing face in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Princeton." she blubbered, her voice muffled by his sweater vest. " I wanted to tell you earlier but I- but I-"

"There, there Kate." he whispered gently in her hear, stroking her back. "It's okay, I'm here. I'll always be here."

Princeton takes her chin in his hands and lifted it up so her big, blue eyes - now red and wet from tears - were looking at his soft, grey ones.

"I promise you, I'm not going to let anything happen to you...", he placed one hand on her stomach, "and our baby."


	2. Chapter 2

9 months later…

"Time for school!" yelled Kate as she simultaneously brushed her teeth and pulled her skirt up.

Leaning in the doorway of the bedroom and seeing Princeton still asleep, she groaned and began shaking him.

"Come on, honey!" she yelled. "It's time for school!"

Princeton just groaned and rolled onto his stomach, pulling the pillow over his head.

"I don't wanna go to school Mom." he moaned sleepily. "Gimme five more minutes."

"Not you Princeton." Kate rolled her eyes. "I mean me. I have to get to the school to open it up for the students."

Kate was the founder and principal of the Monstersorri School, a school for monsters. She took great pride in her work and put as much time into the school as she could (while still leaving plenty of time to spend with Princeton and her friends). Her devotion was well-known throughout the city and she worked hard to maintain that notoriety, even when she was nine months pregnant (which she was right now).

As Princeton cracked his eyes open, Kate kept bustling around, grabbing her bag, pulling a brush through her short, brown hair, snatching up her keys, and remembering she was about to step out the door without a shirt.

By now, Princeton was sitting up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Okay Kate," he said, half yawning, "I'm up."

She didn't seem to hear him as she was in the kitchen, trying to pour a cup of coffee and pull her shirt over her head at the same time.

As she turned to call him again, her hand swung against the cup and sent it to the floor, bits of ceramic and splashes of coffee flying everywhere.

The sound of the crash put Princeton on high alert and sent him flying into the kitchen, wearing nothing but a pair of grey boxers and an undershirt.

"Kate, are you okay?" he gasped as he saw his girlfriend trying to bend over and pick up the bigger shards of cup (without much success).

She looked up at him, very exasperated.

"I'm just dandy." she said through clenched teeth, sweat popping out on her forehead.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." Princeton said reassuringly, sweeping up the remains of the cup and wiping the coffee with a dish rag.

After the rag was rinsed out and thrown back in the sink, Kate leaned against the sink, taking a deep breath.

This didn't go unnoticed.

"Kate, is the baby coming?" Princeton asked, his heart beginning to pick up speed. "Sometimes you can't tell if it's just a false alarm but this time it feels like it's the real deal. Now do you feel any contractions?"

"No." she said jadedly (having gone through this ordeal before).

"Has your water broken?"

"No."

Princeton thought fast; he had to keep Kate focused.

"In 2004, how many Tony's did the show win?" he blurted out.

"I said I'm fine!" she yelled.

"Just answer the question!" he yelled right back.

Kate rolled her eyes (again) and said "Three."

"No!" Princeton cried. "You need to focus during this time. We won Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score, that's what we won?" he said surprised, looking at the three orange fingers he held in the air.

He just shrugged and smiled. "Never mind. You're okay."

She smiled back.

"How's baby monster doing?" he jokingly asked.

Kate shrugged. "Hanging in there."

"I'll be the judge of that." Princeton announced as he put a hand on her stomach and began rubbing it tenderly, his smile shooting further up his cheeks when he felt a kick.

Kate felt her eyes become hot.

"Honey, are you sure you want to go in to school today?" Princeton asked, his tone changing to one of worry. "Because there's no problem if you don't. You can go on leave for two or … six months."

Kate groaned as she pulled her shirt down (taking care to go easily over her stomach). "Come on Princeton. We're going to be late."

Seeing she wasn't going to give up, he grabbed her hand as she tried to go out the door.

"Uh, uh, uh, forgot to eat." he reminded her; she sighed.

"Do you want to go out on leave and let Trekkie be the principal for a while?" he smirked.

Kate shuddered, thinking of the things only Trekkie could pull off as principal.

"No." she shook her head, horrified.

"Then eat something." he ordered.

Kate sighed, grabbed a Special K bar out of the cabinet, gobbled it down in a flash, then snatched a bottle of orange juice and an apple out of the fridge.

"I'll eat on the way." she called over her shoulder, picking up her things and heading out the door again.

"Oh no, you don't." Princeton said as he started trying to grab for the keys, a laugh beginning to play at the back of his throat.

"Catch me if you can!" she sang playfully as he began to chase her out to the car.


	3. Chapter 3

Kate sighed, laughing a breathless laugh as she leaned against the passenger of the car. Her boyfriend stumbled out the door, his legs a bit wobbly (as would probably be expected when one nearly does a swan dive down a flight of stairs).

Princeton just shook his head to regain his senses, opened Kate's door for her, placed her bag in the back, and went around to the driver's side.

He rubbed his hands together as he placed the keys in the ignition. "Okay, we're excited." he announced. "Monsterssori School Field Day, here we go. We're ready to go get some exercise."

Princeton turned the key and turned to her, looking concerned. "Now, what's the number one thing we have to remember in case the time comes?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Stay calm."

He nodded, relieved the she still remembered the procedure. "That's right."

"So, first we lay down on a flat surface and spread our legs apart. And we just start breathing and breathing and try to keep a steady rhythm. And sometimes, if you get the urge to push-"

She glared at him and uttered "Princeton."

He shook his head and grinned. "Okay, here we go."

And with that, Princeton pulled the car away from the sidewalk.

At that moment, Kate's hormones began to kick in as she started giggling and clapping like a little girl.

"Oh, Princeton," she squealed with delight, "I can't believe we're doing field day with our new gym teacher today! Maybe you could take me out to celebrate. How about tonight, we go to a Broadway show?"

Princeton chuckled at this. "I highly doubt that." he smiled.

She turned her head and smirked. "Can you come up with any better ideas?" she asked tauntingly.

"No, and I don't plan to." he replied, a bit stiffly.

"Who went to the Heaviside Layer?" she asked out of the blue.

Princeton couldn't believe his ears. "Who went to the what?" he yelped. "Are you having delusions again?"

Kate laughed. "From the musical CATS. Rod said it was Grizabella the Glamour Cat but I want to see the show to see for myself."

"Well, you know what," Princeton suggested, "if I ever get a chance to buy tickets, we'll go. After I'm done making sure we have enough money, okay?"

It was at that moment he noticed they were pulling up to the school. "We're here." he announced.

Finally, the car came to a stop and Kate undid her seatbelt, opened her door, grabbed her things and began trying to step out onto the sidewalk.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on, hold on." Princeton yelped as he got out of the driver's side and hurried around the back to grab her hand, which was clutching the top of the door as she began swinging her feet out.

"Hold my hand, hold my hand." he instructed gently, not even catching on that he was starting to get on Kate's last nerve.

"Princeton, you're not going to freak out like that day at the zoo, are you?" she asked flatly.

"Hey," he said defensively, "did you see the way that polar bear was eyeing your stomach? You were a dead ringer for a seal, sweetheart."

(At this, Kate had to suppress both an amused giggle and an irritated groan.)

"Hmm, I wonder where we're supposed to go." Princeton wondered, looking around.

"Right over there. We go in the main entrance to the gym." Kate pointed to the door, where Trekkie was welcoming the monster children coming. He looked up and waved to them.

"Wait a minute," Princeton just realized, "if the school's already opened, then why did you grab the keys to the door?"

"What?" she asked, then looked blankly at the ring clutched in her fist. "Oh, how did that get there?"

"Bye, mom!" called a couple monster children as they leapt out of their mother's car and ran for the door. When they ran past the couple, they happily threw over their shoulders "Good morning, Miss Kate!"

Princeton smiled. "Come on. I'll walk you to the door."

"Excuse me, Trekkie" he called, "is this the right way to the gym?"

"Well," the monster smirked, "look who found life outside their apartment."

"Yes. Shocking, I know." Princeton nodded, feeling his face get hot.

Trekkie nodded, then turned his head to Kate. "What month now, Kate Monster? Eighth?"

"Ninth." she corrected.

Just then, a loud whistle blew, causing the three of them to jump. A monster with dark brown fur wearing a maroon tracksuit stepped outside.

"Attention!" he yelled. "Hey, listen up everybody! Monstersorri School's Field Day is just getting started. Come on in!"

Kate grinned. "That's the new gym teacher, Roland Monster." she explained to the males. "I'm gonna go say hello."

"Whoa," said Princeton before she could pull her hand out of his grip, "you better stay with me."

She rolled her eyes, but allowed him to guide her down the couple of stairs.

When they reached the bottom, Kate pulled her hand out of his and said, "Ok, you can go now."

She then promptly walked up behind Roland and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.

"Well, hello." he smiled "Are you the principal?"

"That's right, Kate Monster." she nodded, holding out a hand to shake.

"Well, Kate," Roland smiled, "like in my old school, all new students must answer a health question."

Kate giggled at this and shrugged. "Okay."

Roland thought for a minute, then eyed her stomach and got an idea. "In order to have a baby, sometimes women undergo what kind of procedure?"

"Oh, I got this!" she exclaimed. "A Caesar-section! No, no, no wait," she shook her head, "that's not right. Wait, I know: a Centurion-section! No, uh." Kate looked utterly confused.

"Okay, okay," Roland said gently, motioning Kate to go inside, "don't hurt yourself."

After stopping to give Princeton a kiss goodbye, Kate went in the door. Roland took a look around the schoolyard and saw no other monsters. "Ok." he grinned, rubbing his hands together.

Princeton gently took him by the shoulder and spun him around. "Just so you know," he said "she's due any day. I find if she looks like she's having trouble, let her sit down, take a breath."

"Princeton," cam a voice from the door. Both turned to see Kate standing in the doorway, arms crossed, an impatient look on her face, "it's time for you to go now."

Roland grinned at Princeton and winked. "Don't worry. I'll keep a close eye on her."

And with that, he went past Kate and headed inside, yelling an enthusiastic "Ok!" Princeton could hear the muffled cheers of the monster children.

Kate, after looking over her shoulder and smiling, looked back at him, gave one last little wave, and disappeared inside.

"Have a good day." he whispered.

"Hey, you're doing pretty well for a first timer." Trekkie said, startling Princeton out of his thoughts.

He shrugged. "Well, you can't hold onto them forever, can you?"

Trekkie nodded. "Yeah, the day should be easy. Me looking forward the walk to the art museum. We eating lunch there and playing games on the grass."

"They just gotta do their own -WALK TO THE ART MUSEUM?" Princeton screamed, realizing what the monster had just said. "They're walking to the art museum? How did she fail to mention that? Why don't we drop her off at the hospital and give her a C-section!"

And with that, Princeton ran inside the school, racing to the gym and yanking the doors open. Unfortunately, the room was empty. He saw a back door left ajar, probably left for Trekkie (who had a job as the janitor) to close.

He burst out the front door, looking in the direction of the museum. Before Princeton could even realize what was happening, he took off running.

"Hey, Princeton," Trekkie called after him, "calm down."

"Don't tell me to be calm, you porn obsessed, fur-brain!" Princeton screamed back over his shoulder before he disappeared onto the next block.

Trekkie was stunned by this. "'Porn obsessed fur-brain'?" he wondered.

Just then, the Bad Idea Bars appeared behind him.

The yellow one - Isabella - shook her head. "You know for a father-to-be, I don't think he's taking his job all that seriously." she said.

The blue one - her brother, Esteban - nodded. "Pity."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Avenue Q, Assassins, or anything by Queen!**_

_**Enjoy**___

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"We are the champions,

We are the champions,"

Roland and the monster children sang excitedly,

"No time for losers,

For we are the champions... (dramatic pause) of the world!"

Kate let the sun warm her as she sighed deeply, relieved to be away from Princeton for once.

Not that she didn't love him, but all she wanted was one day where she didn't have to go with him hovering over her like a mother chicken does with her chicks.

Roland started in on the next verse of the song:

"I've taken my bows, and my curtain call,

You've brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it,

I thank you all."

"Come on girls," he called, "join in."

The monster girls - well, those who knew the song anyway - did so:

"But it's been no bed of roses, no pleasure cruise-"

Just then, one of the monsters from the kindergarten class -named Lilly- pointed across the street and began jumping up and down eagerly.

"Look," she yelled, a wide smile on her face, "there it is. There's the museum!"

Everyone looked across the street and sure enough, there it was: the Art Museum.

Lilly ran forward and almost made it into the street. Fortunately, Kate managed to catch up with her and caught her by the hand.

Also fortunately, they didn't have much further to walk.

Before anyone knew it, the whole school was in the museum's garden, a big beautiful space full of flowers and art that was rented sometimes for big events, just like today.

The teachers -along with some of the bigger, stronger of the boys- set down the bags and bins of activities and started setting up the different stations.

"Alright kids," Roland called after getting everyone to quiet down, "feel free to do whatever you want for now, but stay in the garden. The games will be starting soon."

All the kids cheered as they went off to explore.

All the kids, that is, except for two eighth graders and a seventh grader, three brothers named Kevin, Michael, and Rex.

Michael just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Come on, let's go." he whispered to his brothers, motioning to follow him.

The three of them slipped away towards the front of the museum.

This did not go unnoticed.

Kate, of all people, was the one who saw them leave.

If she had called to them and maybe attracted some attention to the situation, what followed could probably have been avoided.

But through it all, it was probably for the best.

"Come on kids, who's up for a little relay race?" Roland called, getting the kids prepped up for the first event.

Amidst the cheers, Kate headed around to the front of the museum to catch the wayward boys.

"Hey guys, wait up!" she yelled. "Come back here!"

As she got closer to the boys, she saw that they were standing on the sidewalk and they weren't moving.

In fact, it looked like they had become statues themselves.

Getting closer, Kate could see what had made the boys freeze: one of the Broadway portals -a square of white light that took up one of the sidewalk spaces- had been opened.

"Cool." Michael whispered.

The boys edged closer to the portal before Kevin pushed Rex in the back and yelled "Saved your life!"

"Aw," Rex groaned "you guys made my fur puff up."

The eighth graders started cracking up when, behind them, they heard a throat being cleared and a very familiar voice saying, "Boys, do you even know what that is?"

Slowly, the three turned around to see Kate, her arms crossed and an angry look on her face.

When no one said anything, she just asked "Well, do you?"

Finally, Michael piped up. "I know what that is. Our mom told us all about it. She called, she said it was called a...a… well, one of those Broadway portal things."

Kate just shrugged. "Close enough."

Then she uncrossed her arms and gave the boys a hard look. "Not the point. The point is, what are you three even doing out here? Do you have any idea what could happen? Your teachers are probably worried sick because they can't- Kevin, what do you think you're doing?!"

While Kate was giving her little lecture, Kevin snuck away back toward the portal.

"Oh, look at me." He called gleefully. "I'm gonna go jump in the portal."

Then he sneezed and nearly lost his balance. "Whoa!"

Michael and Rex started laughing out loud, but Kevin just glared daggers at them.

"Oh you think it's so funny?" He snapped, pointing his finger at Michael. "Let's see how far you can get, Michael."

"Okay." Michael smirked as he calmly walked past his brother and made it halfway to the portal.

Then he turned around to Rex. "Beat that." He called.

Rex eagerly raced past his brothers and nearly made it to the edge of the portal.

"Come on, Miss Kate." He called back to her. "Do you wanna take the jump?"

Kate just groaned.

"Boys, come back here. It's not safe." She yelled, trying again to get the boys to come back to her.

Then she heard another voice she was definitely not expecting: "Kate, no!"

Whirling around, Kate gasped, horrified.

"Princeton!?" she yelped.

There, in front of her, stood Princeton, completely out of breath, his orange face tomato red, his hair looking like it was tossed in all directions. "You were about to jump into that Broadway World portal!"

Kate couldn't believe her ears. "What!? No, I wasn't! Princeton, please listen! I was-"

But Princeton wasn't listening. "It was a good thing I showed up here when I did." He cut her off. "If I hadn't showed up, I don't know—"

The boys quickly started running to Kate's defense.

"Sir, she wasn't actually gonna jump." Rex tried to explain.

"Yeah," Michael added, "she was trying to talk us out of it."

This just irritated Princeton all the more. "This does not concern you, boys." He snapped at them. "And you're lucky you're parents aren't going to find out what you were doing."

Then he turned back to Kate. "You know how much of a dangerous state you're in. What are you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking I'm fine Princeton!" she snapped back at him. "When my water breaks, then we'll start worrying, okay?"

(What Kate and Princeton didn't notice was that the sound of their arguing had attracted the attention of the rest of the school and now they were drawing a huge crowd.)

Princeton wasn't having any of this. "No, it's not okay." He insisted. "You shouldn't be anywhere near one of those things."

"Okay, you wanna know what?" Princeton didn't give Kate a chance to answer. "I was right. As of this minute, you're on maternity leave."

"Come on," he took her by the wrist and started leading her (more like dragging her) to the curb, "I'll get a cab."

"No way!" Kate yelled angrily, yanking her arm out of Princeton's grip. "Just because you're scared of what's going to happen-"

"Clearly, all this work is putting too much strain on you and you're not coming back until your head is clear." Princeton said, talking like Kate hadn't even said anything. "You think you can handle all this and you know what you're doing, but you just don't, Kate!"

This clearly struck a chord in the monster as she slowly, stiffly pulled her hands to her sides and glared at Princeton with a white hot anger he had never seen in her before.

"You think I'm the one under all this strain?" she asked in a calm, low voice that suddenly made Princeton very uncomfortable. "Well, let me tell you something mister: you don't know the first thing about having a baby and even though you think you're helping me by hovering over me all the time, you are just trying to cover up the fact that you are terrified out of your weak little mind. You are nothing but a coward, Princeton."

As Princeton looked at her, frozen with a deeply hurt expression, Roland stepped forward through the crowd and got between the two before they could say anything else.

"Excuse me, is there anything I can do?" he offered. "I mean, I am a teacher. Is there any problem?"

Princeton realized he was being spoken to and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt things." He blushed. "She's just not in a very good state right now and I'm uncomfortable with her being all the way out here, away from our home."

"Well, I have a degree in medicine so I can assure you, she's quite safe with me." Roland smiled.

"Look, I'm sure she is." Princeton insisted, trying to get his point across.

"But you also have to take care of all these kids and something could happen if you're not paying attention. Not that I'm saying you're not, it's just that-"

Princeton was suddenly cut off by a monster girl shrieking "Oh my gosh! Miss Kate's walking back to the portal!"

Sure enough, Kate, having snuck away from Princeton while he and Roland were talking, was sauntering back to the portal, no one else daring to go near.

"Kate!" Princeton cried out, starting to go after her, but quickly stopping. "What do you think you're doing? You're gonna go through that portal and I'll have to get you back into this world before you fall into another one!"

Kate just kept going, acting like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Get back here!" Princeton roared at her, not moving from his spot. "I said get back here, now!"

Finally, he hollered "Stop!"

And Kate did, right at the edge of the portal.

With a confident smirk on her face, she turned around to face her fuming boyfriend.

"You make one more move, missy." Princeton growled, pointing a threatening finger at her.

Not even looking intimidated, Kate calmly got to her knees and raised one hand in the air.

Princeton, not even knowing what Kate was going to do, just continued yelling. "Don't you dare! If you even think about touching that thing- Kate, are you even listening to me?! Come back right n-"

But Princeton didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

Because as he was talking, Kate just circled her hand in the air a couple times for measure and plunged it straight down into the portal.

"KATE MONSTER!"

She just stayed there for a few moments, her arm until just below her elbow covered by the light the portal was giving off.

"You get yourself right back over here." Princeton ordered, pointing at the ground in front of him.

Kate just stood up, pulled her arm out, wiped it on her skirt (not that there was anything on her arm) and began sauntering back to the crowd.

"That's right. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, my dear." Princeton nodded, a whole stream of angry curses forming on the tip of his tongue, not even caring he was in the presence of a large group of children.

What he didn't notice was that the light from the portal was growing brighter and brighter until it shone like a star.

"Do you hear me? You're in way over your-"

That was when the ground started shaking.

Children screamed and clung to each other. Teachers tried to reclaim order, but looked terrified themselves.

And Kate began stumbling back towards the portal, almost like the sidewalk was tipping her back.

Frantically, she struggled to regain her balance, arms protectively wrapped around her stomach

However, when she reached the edge, her arms went from her stomach to out in the air, wind milling like mad.

"Princeton!" she screamed. "Help me!"

His anger replaced by fear, Princeton took off running towards the pregnant monster.

"I'm coming, Kate!" he yelled.

But no sooner had he gone two steps than a white beam of light shot out of the portal straight towards Princeton and wrapped around his ankle.

"Get back, kids!" yelled Roland, herding the school back towards the garden.

As Princeton tried to unwrap the light beam from his leg, he was too busy to notice what would happen next.

"Ah! Oh no!" he heard Kate scream again.

Raising his head, Princeton watched in horror as Kate lost her balance and fell through the portal.

As she vanished behind the light, all he heard was a muffled "Help!"

He tried to make a run for the portal but the light beam pulled his leg out from under him

Princeton hit the ground before the beam uncoiled itself and slid back to where it came from.

He sat up, trying to regain his bearings when a blinding light flashed before his eyes.

Only for a second, but enough to knock Princeton on his back again.

"Oh!" he yelped, rubbing his eyes and trying to stand up.

Once Princeton was able to steady himself on his feet, he looked around, but couldn't find what he was looking for.

"Kate!" he screamed.

Focusing on the portal, Princeton started stumbling towards it, almost tripping over his feet and landing on his face again.

"Kate!" he screamed as he reached the portal and knelt down in front of it, frantically looking for signs that his girlfriend was just on the other side.

"Kate! Kate! Kate!" Princeton cried out over and over, leaning down further and further until the skin on his nose barely skimmed the portal's surface. "No!"

At that moment, Princedton felt as though something had grabbed the hair on the back of his head and yanked him down into the portal.

He felt warm air rushing by him on all sides for a moment, then he was floating.

Princeton opened his eyes to see he, indeed, was floating in a great white space, surrounded by orbs, each one differing in color.

Some were gold, others were silver, and the rest were bronze-colored.

Princeton let out the breath that was caught in his throat and whirled his head around, his whole body turning with him.

"Kate!" he yelled, his voice echoing on forever.

Princeton held his breath, but when all he heard was the faraway sound of his own voice, Princeton started runninng as fast as his legs could carry him (which at first actually surprised him, since he thought the only way to get around the portal was by floating).

As he ran, only one word – a word he felt like he had been saying all day – was on his lips: "Kate!"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Kate was in blackness.

When that freak earthquake occurred and she lost her balance, she expected to see some sort of white light, and she did. For a few moments.

Then it felt like someone had put something in front of her face, something that strangely felt like a giant leaf.

All around her, she heard men's voices chanting something she could not understand.

Although to this day, she swore she heard the word "rigatoni" somewhere in there.

Suddenly, there was a lurch that almost sent Kate flying forward.

As her arms flew to her stomach, she heard yells of "Whoa!" and "Hold on."

What Kate couldn't see was that she was covered by a large leaf and surrounded by men dressed like tribal natives (in a way), carrying long spears.

The men were taking Kate back to their own world when they stopped suddenly to avoid a large group of people crossing in front of them.

The leader stopped his men so abruptly that his body was jostled and the hat he wore on his head went flying off into a nearby portal, where it landed behind an old carnival booth.

The hat was black and had a green feather tucked into the band.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Oh no." Gasped Princeton as he stopped to catch his breath, having run endlessly for what felt like the hundredth time, the word "Kate!" still echoing in his ears.

Finally, the reality of the situation hit him: "She's gone."

But Princeton refused to believe it. "No, no," he insisted, "she can't be gone. No, no!"

Princeton whirled his head around again, praying Kate was around, but all he kept seeing was white light.

And a large group of people who appeared to be moving from one portal to another, led by a few men dressed in medieval garb, acting like they were riding horses. Behind them were more men in dirty clothes clapping coconuts together, carrying huge, heavy loads on their backs.

_Coconuts?_ Princeton stopped to think for a moment, trying to remember where he had seen that before.

But his spirits lifted as he realized there had to be over a thousand people in the crowd.

He took off running, yelling at the top of his lungs "Has anybody seen a monster!? Please! A pregnant monster!"

The crowd gave Princeton strange looks, but he got through the wall of people on the outside and kept up his pleas. "Her name is Kate! She's my girlfriend! And she's carrying my baby! Help me, please!"

Suddenly, a woman's voice screamed behind him "Look out!"

Princeton whirled around, just in time for his head to smack against somebody else's and him to be knocked out of the crowd.

His head throbbing, Princeton lay on the ground, his hope gone.

"Ohh." Groaned the woman as she massaged her temples, her own head hurting. Then she looked up and gasped, seeing Princeton sprawled on the ground.

"Oh, sorry!" she called, scampering over. "I didn't see you."

Kneeling down next to Princeton and helping him sit up, she asked "Sir, are you okay?"

Princeton just shook his head and whispered over and over "She's gone, she's gone…"

"There, there." The woman said in a comforting voice. "It's all right. It'll be okay."

Princeton just shook his head and pulled himself out of the woman's arms. "No, no. I have to find my girlfriend Kate. I'm looking for a monster!"

"A monster?" the woman asked, cocking her head as he started to run again.

Then she gasped and ran to catch up with Princeton, who hadn't gone far. "Hey, I've seen a monster."

"You have?" Princeton spun around and was taken aback by who he saw.

Wild blonde hair, striking emerald eyes, big ruby lips, and sexy pink skin. These belonged to a woman he had certainly not seen in quite a long while: Lucy the Slut (well, now she was just Lucy due to an incident involving his lucky penny).

She was wearing a white halter cut dress with gold sequins at the bust line, which showed off some cleavage, but not as much as her clothes used to. She also wore a pair of white sandals.

Princeton couldn't believe his eyes. He remembered when Lucy had disappeared on her way to Church one morning, but he refused to believe the portal had anything to do with it.

He was snapped back to reality by Lucy saying "Yes I did see a monster and she passed by not too long ago."

"Was she pregnant?" he blurted out.

Instead of answering that, Lucy just smiled, extended her hand, and said "Hi. I'm Lucy."

"I know who you are!" Princeton snapped, irritated he wasn't getting answers.

Lucy frowned, confused. "Really? Where from?"

Princeton groaned. "Never mind that. Which way did you see the monster going?"

"Oh, uh," Lucy stopped to think, "um, this way! It went this way! Follow me!"

Princeton heaved a great sigh of relief as Lucy took off in a direction and he went after her.

"Thank you!" he yelled. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

"No problem." Lucy smiled over her shoulder.

They ran for a little while, then Lucy slowed to a walk, began sashaying her hips, and humming to herself, having a good old time…

At least until she turned her head and, seeing Princeton close behind her, stiffened up and began walking faster.

Princeton frowned and tried getting closer to ask what she was doing, but Lucy was too quick for him.

Making a run for it, she dove into a nearby golden orb and Princeton, not even caring where it led, followed.

He landed on his feet, in the middle of what looked like an old carnival ground at night.

Amidst the darkness, he saw the white of Lucy's dress disappearing behind a booth.

"Hey! Wait!" he yelled, running after her.

For the fact it looked like her sandals were hurting her feet, Lucy could run surprisingly fast.

She zigged and zagged through various booths before finally coming to a sudden halt, Princeton almost plowing into her.

She turned to him, fuming, and shrieked in his face "Will you quit it already, perv!?"

Princeton just stared at her. "What?"

"I'm just trying to walk here." Lucy snapped. "What, the Great White Way too big for you so you think you can corner me here? You got a problem, buddy?"

Princeton tried to say something but Lucy kept getting closer into his face. "Huh? Huh? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? You want a piece of me? Yeah, oooh, I'm scared now. Whaat?"

"Wait a minute." Princeton managed to get out before Lucy interrupted him again with "Look, do me a favor and stop following me, okay!? Go back to your own world, you creep."

Princeton couldn't believe his ears. "Oh, so you wanna be hard to get again, huh?" he snapped right back at her "Well, I have three thing to say to you, Lucy. Number one: I am not a pervert, number two, we're both from the same world, and number three, you're showing me which way Kate Monster went!"

"A monster?" Lucy gave Princeton a blank look again. Then she grinned. "Hey, I've seen a monster. I saw it go by not too long ago. It went this way, come on!" She turned and started running.

Princeton had had enough of this.

Wait a minute, wait a minute!" he yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to him. "What do you think you're doing? You were already telling me which way Kate Monster was going!"

"I did?" Lucy asked, very uncomfortably.

She hung her head and covered her eyes, her cheeks turning a deep red. "Oh dear..."

"Look Lucy," Princeton continued, his a little bit gentler, "if you think this is some kind of practical joke, it's not funny! And believe me, I know funny. The story of my life is a Broadway musical!"

Lucy began shaking her head. "No, it's not. I know it's not. I'm so sorry. See, I recovering from amnesia and suffering from short-term memory loss."

"Amnesia and short-term memory loss." Princeton echoed.

Lucy nodded eagerly, but Princeton just shook his head. "I don't believe this!"

"No, it's true." Lucy insisted. "See, I fell in that portal a few months ago and banged my head. Or at least I think that's what happened."

"Hmmm… what did happen?" she looked at the ground and frowned in concentration, Princeton almost seeing the gears in her head turning, trying to find the memory of those events.

She lifted her head, looked at Princeton like she was seeing him for the first time, and smiled. "Can I help you?"

Princeton just stared at her and shook his head as he started to back away. "Lucy, I'm sorry, but there's really something wrong with you. I don't want to leave you here, but I have to find my girlfriend."

As Princeton turned to leave he felt himself bump into someone.

Backing up a couple steps and looking up, by the light of the moon, he saw a man with dark hair, a thin moustache, and Civil War era clothes smile at him in a friendly way.

The man also had a gun in his hand.

Princeton froze with terror as the man said "Evening." in a Southern accent.

Even though Princeton found he couldn't say anything, Lucy just walked right up to the man, grinning real big and said "Well, hi!"

"John Wilkes Booth, at your service." The man bowed, making Princeton feel sick to his stomach.

_John Wilkes Booth?_ He thought to himself. _Am I really in the presence of the guy who killed Abraham Lincoln? A cold-blooded murderer?_

Booth, seeing Princeton's terrorized expression, just smiled.

"It's all right, I understand." He said kindly, taking a few steps back. "Why trust a presidential assassin, right?"

Booth turned his back to them, like he was walking away, then spun around and aimed the gun at Princeton, who immediately shrieked and dove behind Lucy. But instead of hearing a shot, all he heard was hysterical laughing

Peeking out from behind her shoulder, he saw Booth wiping his eyes, his gun in its holster. "Oh Lord" he laughed, "that still never gets old. So, what's a couple of kids like you doing in our little part of the world, huh?"

"Nothing!" Princeton blurted, the word coming out before he could stop it.

Both Lucy and Booth turned to look at him, so he stepped out from behind her and straightened, trying to make himself bigger than he really was.

"We're not doing anything." He explained calmly. "We're not even out."

Booth looked very intrigued by this. "Great!" he rubbed his hands together. "Then how'd you younglings like to come to a little… thing I'm having with some dear friends?"

"You mean like a party?" Lucy asked, smiling.

"Yeeeeeeeah, something like that." Booth grinned sneakily. "What do you say?"

"Ooh, I love parties!" Lucy gushed as she grabbed Princeton's arm and looked at him pleadingly. "Let's go! That sounds like fun!"

"You know, parties are fun," Princeton said as he began backing away, Lucy still hanging on to him, "and it's very tempting, Mr. Booth, but-"

"Oh, come on," Booth said as he slid behind the two and began prodding them forwards, "I insist."

Princeton could feel the handle of the gun in the holster pressing into his back, making his heart race.

"Okay!" he yelped, running forward. "That's all that matters."

Booth guided them through the dark carnival grounds until they came to a large tent with a table covered by a sheet outside the main flap.

"Hey, look!" Lucy grinned as she pointed to the table. "Party favors!"

Booth just laughed. "Mind yourself, though." He cautioned. "You wouldn't want to have jittery hands holding one of those favors."

As Booth led them inside the tent, Princeton saw a group of men and women wearing clothes from all different decades, huddled around a stage with a podium on it, with chairs set up in front of it.

Princeton also noticed that every person in that huddle was holding a gun.

His eyes darted around frantically, looking for a way out, but every part of him froze when he heard Booth call out "Ladies! Gentlemen! I'm back!"

The group turned to the three of them and a woman dressed like a hippie stepped forward.

"There you are, Booth." She said in a squeaky voice. "Finally!"

Booth nodded. "We got company." He motioned to Lucy, who grinned at the people and waved at them, and Princeton, who was too terrified to do anything.

"And about time, too." Said a man in a dirty Santa suit.

"We've already gone through the first round and my stomach still burns!" yelled a man who sounded like he was Italian.

"We almost went on another frenzy." Added another man who sounded like he was Russian.

"Come on," said a third man carrying a Bible in his hands, "let's get this over with."

Princeton squeezed his eyes shut and the last sound he heard before blacking out was the sound of a gun being cocked.


	5. Chapter 5

When Princeton came to, he felt a hand shaking his shoulder and a voice gently urging, "Come on, wake up."

Slowly opening his eyes, he saw two striking green orbs that were visibly showing signs of relief.

Princeton heaved a great sigh.

_It was a dream._ He thought. _It was all a dreamt misunderstanding. Kate and the baby are safe at home._

But what snapped him out of his reverie was a Southern-accented voice saying "Right, then. If our little friend is all right now, then the meeting can officially come to order. Let us all say the pledge…"

Princeton opened his eyes wider to find himself seated in a chair facing the podium with Lucy standing next to him, facing a small stage on which was an American flag, a podium, and John Wilkes Booth.

He cringed.

The other people in the room faced the flag, put their hands over their hearts, and began to sing…

_Everybody's got the right to be happy,_

_Don't be mad, life's not as bad as it seems,_

_If you keep your goal in sight, you can climb to any height,_

_Everybody's got the right to their dreams._

_Everybody's got the right to be different. (If you wanna be different.)_

_Even though at times they go to extremes._

_Anybody can prevail; everybody's free to fail,_

_No one can be put in jail for their dreams._

_Free country!_

_Means that you've got the choice,_

_Be a scholar! Make a dollar!_

_Free country!_

_Means that you get a voice,_

_Scream and holler! Grab 'em by the collar!_

_Free country!_

_Means you get to connect! (That's it!)_

_Means the right to expect that you'll have an effect._

_That you're gonna connect! Connect! Connect! Connect!_

_Everybody's got the right to some sunshine!_

_Not the sun, but maybe one of its beams. (One of its beams!)_

_Rich man, poor man, black or white._

_Everybody gets a bite; everybody's got the right to their dreams._

_Everybody's got the right...to their dreams… _

Princeton just stood there, mouth slightly agape.

Even though he didn't join in the song with the rest of the people, he still felt out of breath.

Lucy just stood there smiling with her hand over her own heart, not really having a clue as to what had just been sung.

Booth nodded, turned to the people and said "Now, before we get today's meeting under way, I believe we should make our new guests feel welcome. Why don't you folks introduce yourselves?"

The people did just that, the man holding the Bible going first.

"My name is Charles Guiteau." He said, holding his hand out. "I assassinated President James Garfield."

Princeton flinched.

"Leon Czolgosz." said the Russian-sounding man. "William McKinley. And before you ask, I am Polish."

Princeton felt his head involuntarily nod, thinking to himself _Oh great. These guys can read my mind now. What's next?_

"Sam Byck." came from the man in the Santa suit. "I tried to kill Dick Nixon. "

"John Hinckley." said a man with large glasses and a guitar strapped over his shoulder. "Ronald Reagan."

"Lynette Fromme." said the squeaky voiced, hippie woman, taking a seat to Princeton's right.

"Sara Jane Moore." said the other woman, who was carrying a large handbag, sitting on Princeton's other side.

"Gerald Ford." they said together.

"Zangara." said the Italian man, one hand on his stomach. "F.D.R."

"And I'm Lee Harvey." said a young man wearing a plain white shirt and carrying a large rifle

Princeton flinched at the name "Lee Harvey", praying that it didn't end in "Oswald".

Before he had a chance to ask, Booth spoke again.

"All right everybody," he said, "today's meeting is basic target practice. Now, have you all picked your partner?"

Everyone nodded and got together with their selected partner.

Now the only people left were Princeton, Lucy, Booth, and Lee Harvey.

Well, actually just Lee Harvey and Princeton since Booth sidled up to Lucy and offered her his arm, which she accepted.

Booth then turned to face Lee Harvey.

"Say Lee, since I'm partnering with our newcomers, why don't you go with the other one?" he motioned to Princeton

"Hey, thanks John." Lee Harvey grinned as he grabbed Princeton by the arm, and pulled him close.

"Everyone, look at this: a little orange for Oswald!" he called, motioning to Princeton who just cringed and tried to make himself appear as small as possible.

Not only did he not want these assassins' attention on him anymore than it already was, his worst fear had been confirmed: he was (against his will) being partnered with Lee Harvey Oswald for "target practice" (which according to these assassins, probably translated to "God knows what").

Led by Booth and Lucy, the assassins made their way out of the big tent and over to a carnival shooting game – which was conveniently right next to the tent.

How Princeton didn't notice it before was something he'd never know.

Booth then swept the cloth covering the table away, revealing a table covered from one end to the other with guns.

"In case any of you aren't happy with your weapons of choice." he grinned, prompting a couple of them to chuckle.

Booth then took his gun out of its holster as a mannequin with Abraham Lincoln's face started moving in front of him on a conveyor belt.

He aimed and fired a shot that landed right between the eyes, the echo ringing in Princeton's ears.

The assassins started laughing and applauding thunderously.

"You're an inspiration to all of us." Leon Czolgosz cheered.

Charles Guiteau beamed. "Amen."

Booth then replaced the gun in its holster and turned around. "Right, then. Who's next?"

Several hands shot up in the hair, one of them belonging to Lucy.

"Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!" she called, hopping up and down, waving her arm wildly.

Booth was amused.

"Yes, the little pinky blonde lady." he smiled, pointing at her.

"Woo-hoo!" Lucy whooped with excitement.

"Pick your weapon and come on up here." Booth motioned to the table full of guns.

Lucy made her way over to the gun table and, barely looking, picked up the first one she saw: a small handgun with a short but wide barrel.

Booth stepped away from the counter and rejoined the crowd of onlookers as Lucy took his place.

The conveyor belt started moving again, this time with a mannequin with JFK's face on it.

Lucy bit her lip uncertainly, averted her eyes to Heaven, aimed the gun and squeezed the trigger, a surprisingly loud boom echoing throughout the fair ground, causing Princeton to recoil.

When she looked straight, the mannequin's head was all but blown off.

A stunned silence, followed by more loud applause.

"Hey, that's incredible." Lynette Fromme grinned.

"Good on 'ya, bella!" Zangara applauded, having to stop to put his hands on his stomach again.

"Whew!" Lucy gasped with relief as she set the gun down. "And that was my first time too."

As Lucy rejoined Booth at his side, he turned to face the crowd.

"All right, who's next?" he announced.

Again, the hands went up.

Booth scanned the people until his eyes landed on Princeton, who –if it was at all possible – was trying to hide himself inside his shirt.

"How about you, friend?" he asked. "What have you got against a president?"

"Me?" Princeton heard himself say, his voice cracking.

He cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure. "But I don't have anything against the president."

"Oh. Okay…" Booth nodded.

"Denial." the rest of the assassins said in unison.

Lee Harvey Oswald put his hand on Princeton's back and gave him a shove toward the counter.

"It's easy." Booth smiled reassuringly. "All you have to do is hook your little finger and you can change the world."

Not exactly sure that was the sort of thing he wanted to hear right now, Princeton just said "Uh, okay." and picked up the gun Lucy had used before.

The conveyor belt, this time carrying a mannequin with Richard Nixon's face on it, started moving in front of Princeton.

Trying to stall for time, his eyes started wandering, looking at everything but the people behind him, until they landed on a worn black top hat with a green feather in the band sitting next to the big tent.

All of a sudden, not even sure how it happened, Princeton heard Kate's voice in his head, crying out "Help me!"

"Kate!" he gasped, dropping the gun, running to the hat, and scooping it up.

"Kate?" Sara Jane Moore frowned as she turned to Sam Byck. "What was that, Nixon's middle name or something?"

"What're you asking me for?" he snapped at her.

Princeton, not wanting a shooting fight to break out, frantically dove between the two assassins, this time not even scared that they were raising their guns to each other.

"No, no, no, no. She's my girlfriend." he explained. "She's pregnant and she…" he trailed off, not finding the right word to describe his situation, but finally coming up with "disappeared. I don't know where she is, but I'm trying to find her."

"Oh my." gasped Lucy, wandering over to Princeton's side and putting one arm around his shoulders. "You poor thing."

"The bosses." Czolgosz shook his head. "They think they own everything."

"My stomach burns for you, signor." Zangara offered.

Deciding to ignore that, Princeton turned the hat around, hoping to find some sort of indication of ownership.

He found it in the form of a fancy handwriting written with a gold shimmery substance that gave off what looked like thousands of tiny stars.

Princeton would have enjoyed the beautiful quality of this, if not for the fact that the writing was in a language he had never seen before.

"Ugh!" he groaned as he turned the hat around in all angles, trying to see if this could make reading it any easier. "What does this writing mean?"

"What's wrong?" asked Lucy, still standing beside him.

"I can't read this. Look at it." he held the hat out to her.

She looked at the writing and her face lit up with an idea.

"Well then we gotta find someone who can." she announced.

Lucy turned her head to the assassins and her short-term memory loss came into play again.

"Hey, look. Let's ask those guys!" she grinned, taking the hat out of Princeton's hands and running towards the people, who were just talking amongst themselves.

Princeton wanted to scream; this day was not getting any easier.

"No, no, no, Lucy!" he yelled, going after her.

"Guys, guys!" she called, waving the hat over her head, getting their attention.

"No, Lucy!" Princeton yelled again as he caught up with her, spun her around to face him, and grabbed the hat with both hands, struggling to get it out of Lucy's grip.

But she wasn't giving up without a fight.

"That's mine!" she insisted, tightening her hold as she used all her strength to pull the hat towards her.

"Give it to me!" Princeton ordered.

"Gimme!" Lucy retorted.

The struggle continued, with the assassins just standing by and watching, until, in a moment of weakness on Lucy's part, Princeton yanked the hat out of her hands.

Fortunately, the hat was undamaged.

Unfortunately, the sudden release of her grip sent Lucy stumbling backwards, trying to regain her balance.

As she was going down, the back of her head slammed against the counter of the shooting range and she let out a scream of, "Oww!" before crumpling to the ground.

Princeton gasped, not believing what he had just done.

He dropped the hat, and ran to Lucy's side, taking her in his arms.

"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" he asked, his heart racing.

Lucy groaned, struggling to sit up and rubbing the tender spot where her head hit the wood.

"I'm really clocked right there." she mumbled, lifting her hair up and turning around on her knees so the back of her head was visible to Princeton. "Am I bleeding?"

Even though she wasn't bleeding, he could see the large outline of a bruise forming underneath her blonde hair.

Princeton was about to ask one of the people for help when he heard Guiteau gasp "Oh dear."

Turning his head to the assassins, he saw Booth was standing frozen to his spot, holding his gun to his face and staring at it like in a trance.

Feeling a pit of dread starting to build in his stomach, Princeton asked slowly "What is he doing?"

He was only answered with a silence so thick it could have been cut with a knife, which lingered in the air for a few moments before…

"INTERVENTION!" Fromme cried out in an ear-piercing shriek.

Leon Czolgosz and John Hinckley were on top of Booth in a flash, pinning him to the ground as the rest of the assassins began trying to pry his gun out of his hand.

As soon as the struggle began, Booth's lips began moving and the words they were forming slowly began to increase in volume.

First the words were heard in a whisper…

Then they came again, sounding more like a murmur…

And again, in a low voice…

When the words came out in a normal tone, Princeton could just make out what the man had been saying.

"Sic semper tyrannis."

"Booth, can you hear me?" Lee Harvey Oswald said as he leaned down to look his friend in the face. "Say something. Anything!"

"SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!" Booth cried out as he pushed all three men away from him with unnatural strength, leaped to his feet, and aimed his gun at Princeton.

The young orange man felt as though the world began moving in slow motion as Booth fired a shot, Princeton ducked down to cover Lucy and the hat, then he felt a slight pain in his arm, but he didn't have time to examine the source.

"Lucy, watch out!" he cried as he grabbed the hat, yanked the woman to her feet and together, they took off down the aisle of carnival booths.

But the assassin was hot on their trail.

"For my countrymen!" he hollered as he ran into the darkness, holding his gun over his head.

The rest of the assassins just stood there in quiet shock, before taking off to stop their leader from committing an unnecessary murder.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Princeton could hardly see where he was going, but that didn't matter.

What mattered was keeping the hat safe and figuring out how to get out of this world!

He racked his brain frantically, thinking where these people could be keeping their Broadway World Portal.

_Well, they'd probably want to keep it in a place where it would be hard to find. _He thought, letting his legs take care of the running. _And we're in an old carnival, so… _

The idea whizzed through his mind like a bullet rushing past.

And that sound was what brought him back to reality.

Not stopping but turning his head around, he saw Booth was a mere couple of feet away, his finger ready to pull the trigger again.

"Hello!" he sneered in a menacing voice.

This only gave Princeton a jolt of energy as he ran faster before finally grabbing Lucy's wrist, making a hard left, and diving over the counter of a ring-toss game, another bullet flying by as the sound of it caught his ear.

He quickly pulled her under the counter with him and pressed his body down as low as it would go.

All was quiet, before Booth's voice in the far distance yelled out in frustration.

Princeton slowly leaned over to Lucy and whispered in a voice so quiet, he himself could barely hear it "We need to find the House of Mirrors. It's our only chance out of here."

Lucy's head whipped around, her green eyes seeming to glow and illuminate her face despite the darkness.

_Have you lost it?! _the look on her face read.

Princeton, instead of deciding to answer, slowly raised his eyes up, as if to see through the wood if the assassin was coming, but instead, all he saw was a piece of paper with lines and words on it taped to the underside.

A map!

He strained his eyes, but as luck would have it, the print was just small enough that it couldn't even be read.

Suddenly, a loud tapping sound came from the end of the line of booths.

Even though it made Princeton jump, he didn't stop to think about it, at least until Lucy called out "Who is it?"

Princeton cringed; of all the times for her memory to be failing her again…

He grabbed her by the wrist and began pulling her to the back of the tent, his other hand still clutching the hat.

It was probably his fear blocking this out, but if Princeton had put the hat on his own head, then he could have placed the other hand over Lucy's mouth, which could have prevented…

"Sorry, you'll have to come back later." she called sweetly to the sound of approaching footsteps. "We're trying to find the House of Mirrors."

Princeton just shot her a death glare and lifted the flap that served as a back entrance/exit for the carnival booth.

The two made their way through and found themselves facing an old fashioned street sign: a wooden post with arrows pointing in all directions.

The arrows each had different names of attractions carved on them, but because of the shadow caused by a cloud that had moved in front of the moon, it was near impossible to read the signs.

Princeton hung his head, ready to give up when he heard Lucy say "Look, here's something!"

Lifting his head, he saw that she was pointing to a street sign indicating something was to the right of them, part of the writing on it illuminated by a sliver of moonlight peeking out from behind the cloud.

"R-O-R-R-I-M." she spelled out slowly, frowning, "Hm, I wonder what that means. It's funny, it's spelled just like the word 'mirror', only backwards-"

Princeton didn't wait to let Lucy finish her sentence.

"Let's go!" he yelped, grabbing her wrist and pulling her in the direction the sign was pointing.

Running, they came up to an old, dark, dilapidated, wooden building, and not even pausing to consider what kind of situation they could potentially put themselves into, ran inside.

Meanwhile, back at the ring toss, John Wilkes Booth stalked up and stared down at the counter with a crazed expression, his gun aimed.

"Heeere's Johnny!" he shouted menacingly, firing several shots into the wood before realizing there was no reaction.

He leaped over the counter and saw that was no one there.

Just then, the cloud in front of the moon moved away and a ray of light shone on the footprints left behind.

Booth chuckled evilly and followed them, slipping inside the House of Mirrors.

As for Princeton and Lucy, they felt for sure they were running in circles, as their reflections faced them from all directions, the moonlight streaming through the cracks in the wood.

Suddenly, realization crossed Princeton's mind.

"Wait a minute." He skidded to a stop and turned to Lucy, whose wrist he was still holding, his other hand still occupied by the hat.

"Lucy," he began to explain, "do you think I'm crazy or when you hit your head all those months ago, did that somehow affect the part of your brain that processes difficult reading material?"

Lucy just stared at him, having no clue what he just said. "What?!"

Princeton sighed and tried to break it down easier. "What I'm saying is, because of your head injury, I think your brain makes it easier to read stuff you normally couldn't without help."

When all he got to this was a blank stare, he shoved the hat in her face.

"Try to read this now!" he exclaimed.

Lucy took the hat from Princeton's hands and held it close to her face, squinting.

Before she could figure out a single word, the sound of shattering glass sounded behind her, making her jump and causing her to drop the hat in the process.

To their utter horror, the glass in the mirror behind them shattered and Booth appeared in the now-empty frame, his expression more maniacal than before.

Forgetting the moment where they were to momentarily freeze in terror, Lucy and Princeton took off again down one of the halls, a voice echoing after them.

But surprisingly, the voice wasn't Booth's.

"He really doesn't mean it, y'know!" came Lynette Fromme's voice from somewhere else in the hall. "All he got was bad reviews!"

Princeton had no clue what this meant, but didn't want to stop and find out.

At least not until he almost crashed head-on into a mirror.

"Oh no, a dead end!" he cried out as he and Lucy spun around, trying to find another passage, only coming face to face with their terrified reflections.

It was at that point Princeton realized he didn't have the hat, instead seeing across a row of mirrors on the celling that Booth had it on his head.

He felt ready to go back the way he had just run, to get the hat one way or another, until he saw the reflections of the rest of the assassins bursting in through the entrance and while the bigger of the men tackled Booth to the ground, the others attempted to get his gun away from him one more time.

Sam Byck, trying to hold Booth's legs down, looked up at the ceiling, and seeing Princeton staring at what was going on, called "Sorry –" (here, Booth managed to free his legs and tried to kick him in the face, but Byck quickly got them back under control) "– about this!"

Guiteau, following the man's gaze, nodded. "Booth's really –" (right there, he had to jump out of the way to avoid Sara Jane Moore's handbag as it almost went flying into his face) "- a nice guy!"

Princeton couldn't waste any more time.

"I need to get that hat!" he announced to Lucy just as Booth pushed all the assassins away and got to his feet.

Having seen this, Lucy began to back up against the mirror when she heard her shoe clink against something.

Getting to her knees, she fumbled around in the dark for a few moments before grasping something that cool, smooth, metallic, and heavy.

Summoning her strength, Lucy pulled the metal towards her and into a shaft of moonlight, revealing that the object was a toolbox.

Undoing the clasp that held the box shut, she lifted the lid up to see a pile of tools and – who knows how it got there – a flare gun sitting on top.

Lucy picked the gun off the top of the pile, frowning in confusion, before her frown was replaced by the face that showed a brewing idea.

Getting to her feet, she took a deep breath, swaggered up to Princeton and pushed him aside.

"You want that hat?" she smirked as the manic Booth who, attracted by the sound of her voice, spun to face the puppets, and began heading towards them, his one hand still holding the gun, the hat clutched in his other.

Lucy just aimed the gun at him "Okay."

Princeton just looked horrified at what the young woman was about to do and tried frantically to talk her out of it. "No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Not even hearing him, Lucy fired a single shot and Booth – somehow starting to come back to reality –dove out of the way as the flare went flying out the door and into a tent.

The tent collapsed in a fiery explosion as one of the main posts, quickly being consumed by the fire, fell over next to a large group of barrels marked that they contain gun powder.

Just then, to his right, Princeton saw a square of white light beginning to grow brighter and his heart filled with hope… he had finally found the portal.

Yet he knew he couldn't leave without the hat.

Suddenly, a plan came to Princeton's mind.

"Quick grab the hat!" he ordered Lucy, taking the flare gun out of her hands and pushing her towards Booth. "Grab it!"

As she approached, Booth sat up and seeing her coming, immediately bowed his head in shame as he held the hat out to her.

"I am so sorry for what I put you and your friend through. I can't explain why that has been happening to me recently, but please accept my apologies." he said.

Lucy, sensing the sincerity in his voice, slowly took the hat and offered him a smile. "Thank you."

Booth slowly raised his head and returned the smile before pointing to where Princeton was standing, growing more antsy by the second.

"Go with your friend." he ordered gently. "Help him find his Kate."

Lucy turned to leave as Booth got to his feet, just in time to hear behind him "Oh no. Wilkes?"

"What?" he turned around to see Sara Jane Moore pointing out the door.

Following her finger, he saw the flaming tent post beginning to ignite the barrels of gunpowder.

He gasped.

"Hit the dirt!" he yelled frantically, dropping to his knees. "Everyone down!"

The other assassins, who were already on the ground, dropped to their stomachs and covered their heads.

Lucy, hearing the commotion behind her, stopped walking, turned around (to Princeton's chagrin) ad started making her way back to Booth.

"Aw," she called to him, sounding disappointed, "does this mean the party is over?"

Outside, just at that moment, the flame reached the barrels and a huge explosion occurred.

Flaming everything went flying, the ground shook, and Princeton – not wanting to spend another moment in this world – ran to Lucy, grabbed her wrist, snatched up the hat before it could drop again, clutched it close to his chest, ran back to the portal, and dives through it.

As soon as they disappeared, the white square of light closed and oddly enough, all was still.

John Wilkes Booth, Giuseppe Zangara, Leon Czolgosz, John Hinckley, Charles Guiteau, Sara Jane Moore, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Samuel Byck, and Lee Harvey Oswald raised their heads at the same time, and seeing that the young orange man and his female, pink companion managed to escape, breathed a community sigh of relief.


End file.
